USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Shirley > Shirley uplands and intervales; annals of a border town of Middlesex, with some genealogical sketches > Part 6
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SHIRLEY
In the south part of the town on the Catacoonemug, a busy village had grown up, and a stage line from Leominster and beyond passed through. Here the Hazens had a tavern for a time, which still stands op- posite the Suspender Shop, and boasts the most beauti- ful doorway in town.
About 1834 Sherman Willard married Mary Henry, and they went to housekeeping west of the Hazen Tav- ern. The cellar and house were then about one-fourth as large as the tavern later became. The stories con- nected with this tavern all seem to have to do with silver.
Tradition says that in the land next where the Henrys lived, was a silver mine. In fact it is really more than a tradition, for every transfer of the land for a hundred years and more mentions that seven-eighths of a silver mine goes with the land. I have never found who owned the other eighth, and, though I have hunted diligently, I could never find the silver mine. Tradition affirms, however, that one Jones, who lived "down below"- it is to be hoped that that means nearer Boston, and not in a warmer spot-used to journey up from Boston, on his horse, with his saddlebags, to his silver mine in Shirley. At one time he was ill, and a friend was to take his place. The directions to the substitute were to go to Shirley, go to the fordway near Slab city, "and give the old mare her head." There was also mention of a great boulder. The "old mare" was to do the rest. Jones died shortly after, and the old mare died before spring, so that the silver mine disappeared from the knowledge of men. The ford and the boulder are now swallowed up by the mill pond. Modern sceptics think that this mine was a blind, and that really there was a nest of
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TAVERNS
counterfeiters in the old Sherman Willard Tavern, since no man could carry ore enough in his saddlebags to make the journey worth while. Even earlier Shirley seems to have been interested in this easy means of ac- quiring wealth. In 1785, on the second of May, Parker writes: "John Longley taken with a warrant." For once he explains why, for on the eleventh he says, "at night John Longley, Jr., at Cort for making money."
Sherman Willard owned a rod which would turn when there was silver beneath. To test it some doubters buried some spoons and other silver on the hill. But this rod found them out. The story goes that there was a buried treasure under Willard's tap-room, as the rod turned there-which gives a hint of corroborative evidence of my counterfeiter's tale. Tradition also says that he murdered a wandering Indian and buried him in the cellar. The house was partially burned and later pulled down. The silver was dug for in vain, but the bones were there-sheep bones. In my own day here in Shirley, a pot of counterfeit half dollars was dug up by Mike O'Neil. He sold them for fifty cents apiece as curiosities until the authorities took him to task. The coins were very good to look at and were all dated about 1830.
Then the railroad came along the Catacoonemug, and the stage routes languished and died, and with them the taverns as such. Their trade was gone, and with them a phase of life we moderns know little of. What do we really know of the cheerful sociability which these old time taverns meant for those who dwelt in the town? In later years the lyceum made a dignified attempt to be a substitute for one side of the tavern life discussion. But with wives and daughters present things were too
WALLIS LITTLE'S TAVERN
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TAVERNS
cut and dried. How could one wax hot and eloquent when one's language could be called to account in a cur- tain lecture afterward?
And all this while we have forgotten the most elabo- rate and expensive form of tavern keeping that we had here in town. Wallace Little, having a great house* and great ambition, acquired a strip of land in town four poles wide, which was as a turnpike to shorten greatly the distance through town of the great high road from Boston, west. This he laid straight over hill and marsh and sandy waste, and by his own house. It was to be the great turnpike, a toll-road to the west. He was to collect the tolls and, incidentally, he was to turn the tavern trade from Morse's Tavern to his own inn. It is too late now to tell what the real outcome would have been, for all too early for a decision in the fight the rail- road came and travel by stagecoach ceased, and both taverns languished.
With the going out of the tavern we lost many of the ancient forms of drink. No one now burns flip-few know even the receipt. Cider, except as it is made com- mercially in great mills with preservatives to get around the three-per-cent alcohol law, is little made, and no commercial cider can in any way compare with the coun- try-made cider when it gets a little over the three per cent and has the tang and bite of the October air with- out.
*1796. January 28. I went to Wallis Little's house-warming; thirty odd at the same place .- James Parker's Diary.
VII SHAYS'S REBELLION
THE surrender of Cornwallis was not, in Massachu- setts, the end of trouble. The Revolution had sucked the wealth of the people; farms had lain without tillage often for many years, while the men of the family had been at war, and labor was high and scarce. The cur- rency was so debased that a mug of flip cost twelve dol- lars. To the ignorant the immediate result of poverty and debt was arrest and arraignment before the Infe- rior Courts, and so toward them these men turned all their venom. Shays's Rebellion was an attempt to in- timidate the courts and judges so that they should not sit, and render adverse judgment upon the poor. The idea spread like a forest fire over the land, and Shirley was in its midst. It seethed with sympathizers, for the leader, Captain Job Shattuck, was a Groton man, and he was most ably seconded by Nathan Smith of Shirley. Much has been written in town histories and in mono- graphs of the causes and results of this unique outbreak, so we will limit ourselves to the story as it affected Shir- ley and Shirley men.
Our old friend, Squire James Parker, who, by the way was neither a sympathizer with nor an active opponent of the rebels, tells us what happened in Shirley. It is difficult for us to see just how an outbreak could develop with such suddenness when men lived in scattered farms and news had to be carried by word of mouth. Cer-
8
CAPTAIN NATHAN SMITH JR.'S HOUSE, THE GREAT ROAD
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SHAYS'S REBELLION
tainly in Shirley the news and its consequent effect were quick. On September 6, 1786, James Parker writes: "a stur among the people in regards of Inferior Corts &c." On the eleventh, "I went to Sawtels, Nathan Smith marched some men to Concord In order to stop the Cort Seting, it rained hard this Day & Chief of ye 12 Day I did but Little work, a number went to Concord." Per- haps unluckily for us Parker did not go to Concord but Loammi Baldwin, an eye witness, wrote a description to Governor Bowdoin. The story gives us a fairly accurate portrait of our fellow townsman.
The number of insurgents having been increasing during the whole day, about 3 o'clock a Company from Worcester of about 90 men on horse back and Chief of them armed, drums beating &c moved with solemn pace by Jones's Tavern where the Court were at dinner, in order to join the mob on the green before the Court House, but the Commander of the company from Worcester County hearing one Nathan Smith of Shirley (a person outlawed) who seemed a leader among the middle- sex insurgents declare aloud that every person who did not follow his drum and join the Regulars in two hours should be drove out of town at the point of the Bayonet let them be Court Town Convention or whoever else this he did with high oaths & imprecations and whoever should be left would be monuments of God's sparing mercy &c &c Upon which the Worcester leader Stoped and told Smith that he would never join him until he recalled them words &c which he afterwards did and united forces, and at this time are about 250 or 300 strong, have just marched over to shew themselves to the court and returned to the green again.
The insurgents gained the result that they hoped for in Concord, for the court did not sit at that time.
Nathan Smith and his brother, Sylvanus, had both been officers in the Revolution and so had training in the command of men. Sylvanus seems to have been
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much less fiery and unbridled, and his part in the re- bellion was little. Nathan, on the other hand, was one of those who are fiery, hot-tempered and uncontrolled, rough, unlearned and coarse. He was always in trouble of some sort, and later in life, lost an eye in a scrimmage with a neighbor. The general opinion is that had Smith led instead of Shays the retreat into Canada would never have taken place, and instead of a bloodless rebellion, the government would have had to put down the in- surgents with real and bloody fighting. The turmoil went on increasing until at length in November Oliver Prescott of Groton appealed to the governor and council to arrest Job Shattuck and his officers as dangerous to the peace of the state. There was evidently good reason for Prescott's action as Parker tells us that there was "a stur in this place about Going to Cambridge Cort Kallcy & others." The governor and council acted upon Oliver Prescott's hint with alacrity and issued a warrant against "Job Shattuck & Oliver Parker, gentlemen, & Benjamin Page, yeoman, all of Groton in the County of Middlesex aforesaid, Nathan Smith and John Kelsey both of Shir- ley in said County gentlemen," alleging "that the En- largement of Said Job, Oliver, Benjamin, Nathan & John is dangerous to the said Commonwealth its peace & safety." According to Parker the arrest took place on the last day of November; "a Great Movement among the people Capt Job Shattuck Benj" Page & Oliver Parker took Last Night and Carried off to Boston Goal the people in arms & under arms Tremendous times in Deed A Bloody day with Poor Job." Evidently the officers were content with the arrest of the ring- leader, Shattuck, for our Shirley men escaped imprison- ment at the time.
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SHAYS'S REBELLION
All through January, 1787, the times were still "tre- mendous in Deed." The next point of attack was upon the court at Worcester which was the next to sit in the disaffected area. Let Squire James tell what he heard and saw.
January 14. I at meeting } day. Orders Came to Capt. Egerton to Draugh men, I Sert, I corp1, and nine privates, to go to Worcester to defend the Cort.
16. Was a meeting to Draught men. Drat nine viz: Cor1 Davis, John Walker, Wm Williams, Wm Conant, Ed Longley, Jon" Davis, Moses Chaplin, Ra Kindall, Ed Holdin &c.
22. A Great number of men went to join Shays army at Worcester.
These are, doubtless, the men whom Chandler tells us of, who increased their courage artificially at James Dickinson's Tavern, elected Aaron Bigelow of Groton to lead them, with Solomon Pratt and Cornelius Davis of Shirley as under officers. Parker's diary sounds troubled, and I suppose that men feared much in those days, for houses and families were divided in their allegiance and bloodshed threatened.
January 23. A Cold Day but little News this Day.
24. Jam Egerton at my house. Stories flying every way back & forth.
25. The Cort seting at Worcester; the people in Confu- sion.
27. I hear Bad nues from Camp this Day.
28. I at meeting } Day. James Dickinson, from Shays army, brought Some letters.
30. I sent 9 Caggs down by Egerton. Newes every way.
31. News flying every way these Days, and the whole state in an uprore. Shays, & Gen11 Lincoln, & their men on the Move Back & forth; it seems as if the people ware mad as they realy are. Strange Times in Deed.
February 5. I went to Town meeting in Order to send a Petition to the general Cort.
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SHIRLEY
February 7. the men return from Gen1 Shays Army, & he gone into ye New State.
18. I at meeting } ye Day, fine singing. This 18th Day of Feby, 9 men taken out of Shirley, of Shays party to Fitch- burg, viz: Phinehas Page, Jerh Chaplin Jr., John, & Jam Campbell, Mr Clerk, Ned Pratt, Jn Longley, Asa Smith, & all sworn & gave up their arms.
26. Government men coming home Coll Woods & others.
28. Shirley men going Dayly to take the Oath of Allegiance, & resigning up their arms. Men Enlisting for four months for the soport of government.
March 6. I went to Boston, Cold & good sleading. A Great many Going to swear to be true to government, from Shirley & other places.
21. It was the last Day of Shays party swearing.
As one looks through the list of those who afterward swore allegiance it is difficult to say why some sympa- thized with Shays and why others did not. Of course the appended lists are inadequate, for many more than these must have gone to join Shays.
The first Shirley men on record were sworn on Feb- ruary 16,* two days before Parker's list, and were eight in number, Edward Smith, Abel Moors, Daniel Sawtell, Simon Page, Jr., Abel Page, Isaac Williams, Ebenezer Pratt, Francis Harris, drummer. The archives then tell of the stragglers during the rest of February and early March.
Feby 28. John Walker John Heald I gun
Shirley Middlesex yeoman
Nath1 Kezer
March I. Sam1 Walker
gent old Const™
7. James Dickinson joiner I gun
19. Francis Harris gent old Const"
Sewall Blood Laborer
William Goss yeoman I bayonet & no other arms
*Mass. Archives, Vol. 190, p. 179.
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SHAYS'S REBELLION
The great majority, or perhaps it would be better to say the longest list extant, is of those who waited until the last day of all and then gave in. These lists are in- teresting since nowhere can I find the names of the two ring-leaders, Nathan Smith and John Kelsey. There must have been an exodus from Shirley on the thirtieth of March when Shays's men marched to Lunenburg to be sworn true citizens.
Stephen Stimpson of Shirley Carpenter
Daniel Livermore
Yeoman
Hezekiah Patterson
Carpenter
Jonathan Atherton
Cooper
Asa Longley
Husbandman
Eben' Pratt
Blacksmith
Edmund Longley
Husbandman
[men of Townsend]
Abel Longley
of Shirley, Cooper
Jno Tarbell
. [men of Townsend]
Amos Atherton Jr
of Shirley Husbandman
William Gowin
Husbandman.
Jesse Farnsworth of Lunenburgh Husbandman.
Timothy Bolton
of Shirley Husbandman
Benjamin Egerton
Blacksmith
Samuel Davis
66 Husbandman
Jonathan Davis
Cordwaner
Phinehas Holden
66 Cuper
. [men of Townsend]
Jonathan Conant
of Shirley Yeoman
Jonathan Conant Jr
Husbandman
Phinehas Longley
Cooper
Calvin Longley 66 66
Cooper (Vol 190-p 185)
George Kimball, justice of the peace in Lunenburg, sent in these lists to John Avery Esq., secretary of the Commonwealth, and, like a woman, adds a postscript, in which he says:
Cooper
STEPHEN STIMPSON'S HOUSE, FROM CENTRE ROAD
-
nmil +7mm
-
-
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SHAYS'S REBELLION
N. B. Their are a Number of other Persons that have taken & Subscribed to the oath of allegiance to the Common- wealth that are in the original Subscription Sent to you, it appears that they had not any arms to Deliver up. Some of whom ware minors and Neither they nor their parents ware able to procure arms & others that had not taken up arms but Had in Some way been assisting &c to whom I admin- istered the oath and their names are as follows viz: [men of Townsend] John Tarbel, William Gowin William Bolton, Phineas Longley, Calvin Longley, Samuel Davis of Shirley in the County of Middlesex William Park of Groton in said County, Jonathan Messer of Lunenburg in the County of Worcester.
And so ended Shays's Rebellion, which had, at least, the effect that it brought some amelioration of the con- ditions which it aimed to change. Like all unsuccessful enterprises it was and is crowned with obloquy.
There is a tradition that has been rife in town that Joshua Longley was hunted for by the government men when he was building the red house at the corner of Centre Road, now known as the Davis house. The house was not finished when the officers came to make the arrest, and Mrs. Longley went to the door, stepping across upon the unfloored timbers. The officers came blindly in and fell through to the cellar, giving Longley time to escape by the rear. One rather doubts if Long- ley was the principal actor in this tale, for he was ap- pointed by the town in January to be a committee with Asa Holden to help put an end to the rebellion. Stephen Stimpson, who next owned and occupied the house, was a prominent man in the rebellion and one of those haled off to court to take the oath.
Squire Parker's diary may, however, corroborate the tradition as it has come down, for on March 30 he "went
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SHIRLEY
to Groton to hear Joshua Longley tryed by Wallace Little & Hartwell, a great Number of people & others &c. the Doct" [Hartwell] cleared & Joshua not, the Justices suspended Judgment for 3 weeks." And then Squire James forgets to tell us the sequel. Anyhow something happened to the judge for, on April 2, "Frank Champney & others from Groton [came] & took a Number with a warrant for abusing Mr Little &c. I had 4 fraims of chairs from N" Smith." With the unfailingly vengeful spirit of our ancestors, Joshua Longley retaliated, for on May 19 Parker writes that "Joshua Longley took Mr. Little with a warrant."
Our ancestors certainly did not stop with fighting England for their rights. They fought her collectively, and then at home they fought each other with equal zest. The two Shirley leaders of the rebellion seem to have been particularly truculent. Nathan*, as we have
1774
Sallian-smitt
said, got into a fight at a "trooping and training" with Jonas Page and lost an eye. Kelsey, who became a neighbor of Parker, was of the same kidney as Smith, and Parker himself was no meek or humble citizen.
Parker and Kelsey started fighting over a boundary, and presumably a road bound, for Parker says, "I worked at the highway, mov'd Kallcys fence myself 4 oxen Jam, John, Daniel, David, Moody, Cart, & tools. Some rain
*Smith's remark at Morse's Tavern is still quoted, That he wished to be buried in a hemlock coffin, so that he could go snapping through hell.
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SHAYS'S REBELLION
toward night, worked hard."* Kelsey waited nearly two years for his chance and then impounded four of Parker's sheep. These were detained in the Pound until the charges equalled their value and they were sold at auc -. tion. Parker went to watch the proceeding and says nothing more in the diary except that Reuben Hartwell bought them. But he must have said or done something which he does not tell, for suddenly we come upon this entry : "Kallcy put up two posts before my door. I took them down in the afternoon." Then Kelsey took down the gate from in front of his house and put up bars which bottled Parker up in some way, and created a hardship. On Thanksgiving Day, when Parker had a goodly com- pany to dine, "Kallcy kept up the bars by his house all day." The quarrel grew so hot that at December town meeting Parker "asked the town wether they ment I should be shut up & have no pass out. No vote upon it." Apparently, like so many matters then, and so few now, there was an "arbatration," so that in the end he and "Kallcy" agreed to fence out a road, each doing half. And so that quarrel ended, an aftermath of the contumacious spirit of both rebel armies. Gradually Shirley subsided to her normal state of "set downs," "frolicks," farming, and the general routine of life, and they lived in such peace as a country neighborhood can, until the War of the Rebellion called their sons and grandsons to arms once more, to fight for rights and liberty again.
*September 16, 1797.
VIII THE POUND
IN EARLY times the pound was as much a part of the equipment of a town as the church or the stocks. When animals went "at large," trespassers and straying beasts were frequent, and the town derived some revenue from the impounded animals.
Shirley was not in the least behind other towns; and, in her desire to be conventional, on March 20, 1753, voted "to build a log pound." It was a square of un- hewn timbers, mortised together at the corners. In those days Centre Road had a more easterly course than it has at present, and the pound was near it. Just over the first hill on Hazen Road, in Mr. Frank Lawton's pasture, is a flat, low place, and here they built the pound. It is strange how one name will remain, and another will be soon forgotten; there seems to be no reason in it. This log pound was abandoned after seven years of use, and yet, nearly a hundred and sixty years after, we still know the hill as Pound Hill, and the school as Pound Hill School.
In 1760, when Groton gave Shirley a Common at the present Centre, the location of the new pound there was one among the uses to which it was put. This pound stood just east of Brown Road or Parker Road-for each of these two starts at the Common-on the northeastern corner of the new Common. The town voted in March that it be twenty-five feet square, and that they "build
THE OLD STONE POUND, SHIRLEY COMMON
III
THE POUND
said pound with timber and have it framed." The new pound lasted but thirteen years, so that one rather wishes to know whether it was hard use or a new fashion that dictated this frequent rebuilding. The pound keeper was an important personage for many years, and a man in constant service. The backs of the old town books contain many entries and descriptions of horses, cows, and pigs impounded and advertised, so that their careless owners, having paid the fee, might claim them again.
On June 8, 1773, William Little, Henry Haskell, and Obadiah Sawtell were appointed as a committee to build the third pound, the stone one that we are so proud of today. It was to be two rods square inside, and pieces of timber were to be placed around the top. They voted also that it be completed as soon as possible. Apparently their new church called for a new and state- lier pound beside it. They were not entirely satisfied with it, for on June 13, 1791, Parker makes note that, "Callcy raised ye Pound." I think that except for the trees which have grown up inside and the lack of a crowning timber on the walls the pound must look much as it did when it was first built. The old pound was apparently left in its old place, for in 1812 a committee was appointed "to Examine the timber of the old Pound and report at the next meeting." 'On the same day the town voted "to buy a cow and lend her to William Warren." Ten days after the first town meeting they had another, during which they voted that "the Com- mittee chose to Examine the Timber of the old pound should go on and repair the pound." They were not satisfied with this, or the committee was not, so they
EDWARD DUNN'S HOUSE, BENJAMIN ROAD
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THE POUND
"left it discretionary with said Committee to dispose of the timber of the old pound." Thus our second pound disappears.
There is no doubt that the pound was used for retali- ation as well as for its legitimate purposes. James Parker wrote in his diary under the date of April 13, 1830, "Dick Bennett had my cattle in Pound. I went in the afternoon after them; I paid $1.75 to the Pound Keeper." The next day he wrote, "I drove B. Hart- well's Cattle to the Pound." A day later he wrote, "I and Harkness mended fence } the day." The mended fence was evidently adequate for some time, but on October second, the day after his father's funeral, vengeance returned to roost. "Oct 2ª I went to Gro- ton on Business about &c. Benjamin Hartwell put my cattle in the Pound &c. Bancroft took them out &c." A pretty mean time, that, to take advantage of a neigh- bor's grief, no matter how angry he was.
This pound was the scene of one well-remembered drama toward the close of its usefulness. About 1865 Hazen Clark, who lived on the Tolman farm, had a mare and two colts. Clark was in the habit of allowing his cattle and horses to roam the streets, to the distress and annoyance of his neighbors. Lafayette Warren was field-driver that year, and so, after many complaints, he took the mare and colts as they were roaming, and put them in the pound. The next day they were gone. Warren was angry, hitched up his horse, and drove to Townsend to consult "Lawyer Worcester," who was then town counsel. Worcester told him to take the horses wherever he could find them, put them in the pound, and at the end of seven days to sue Clark for damages.
9
II4
SHIRLEY
So Charles A. Longley, the pound keeper, went over and took the horses. Clark was inclined to fight at first, but decided not to. The horses were duly installed in the pound and Longley established himself outside. He turned his hay cart up against the gate of the pound, and stayed there for eight days and nights. Needless to say he was the centre of a constant curious · group, who were anxious to watch him eat his meals, or prepare to go to bed under his cart. At the end of the time one of the horses was sold for costs. Clark sued Warren, but got no damages.
Now-a-days the pound contains nothing larger than a stray dog or cat, self impounded. Men are much more law-abiding in respect to their neighbors' cattle rights than they used to be. Now each one is so afraid of seeming unneighborly that many suffer impositions silently. Is our virility lessening with our greater luxury, or do we get by more peaceful means those things for which our fathers fought?
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